


Loved

by fid_gin



Series: The Loved 'verse [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-22
Updated: 2014-03-22
Packaged: 2018-01-16 15:26:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1352392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fid_gin/pseuds/fid_gin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Can he, literally, live with himself?</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loved

**Author's Note:**

> Original posting date: July 11, 2008
> 
> This is it, the fic what began it all. I decided, shortly after _Journey's End_ , that I just wanted to play around with what might have happened if the Doctor had kept Ten II and Rose on the TARDIS. I intended it to be a one-shot, and instead it sprawled into a great universe, encompassing many of the series highlights yet to come after the end of S4. Originally posted on LiveJournal, reposted here both for posterity, and to reach both those who've moved here from LJ and enjoyed the 'verse, and those who may not have experienced it yet.

“Could you please remind _him_ ,” the Doctor says, very pointedly glaring at her and not in the direction of his blue-suited double standing only a few feet away, “that he is half-human and has no regeneration cycle to speak of, and that's three times, _three times_ in a week I've had to come to his rescue, and I don't fancy scraping my own face off of the cement?”

“Rose,” the other Doctor says, slightly less venomous and a bit more amused. “Would you kindly tell _me_ ,” very pointedly staring right at the other man and not at her, “that I recall coming to his rescue not, welll, thirty minutes or so after I was born, so he can drop the sanctimonious act?”

“Tell him that was Donna.” The Doctor's teeth are bared.

“ _Doctor_ -Donna,” the other one corrects.

“Clone.”

“Twat.”

“Did you know, Doctor,” she says, addressing both of them, “the first sign of madness is arguing with yourself?” They both whirl angrily on her retreating back as she quickly exits the room. “I'm done playing telephone with you two,” she throws over her shoulder. “You're going to have to speak to each other eventually.”

A few moments of tense silence, and then the first Doctor speaks. “She's right. Stop almost dying.”

The second Doctor rolls his eyes. “Not dead, doing very well thank you. And of course Rose is right. She's brilliant.”

The Doctor's eyes narrow a bit. “You've only known her a week.”

“I've known her just as long as you have. In a way,” rolling his tongue around the words, “I probably know her better, as it was this hand she held first before you went and got it lopped off.” Holding up said hand and wiggling his fingers in a 'hello' gesture.

“Thats...I...ridiculous!” the Doctor sputters. “You owe everything you are to me!”

“Quite right,” the other man sighs, and they sort of size each other up for a minute. “So...are you married to the brown suit? Because I've got to tell you, blue isn't really my colour.”

****

“I don't know why he has to be so...difficult,” the Doctor moans. “It must be from Donna, because I'm not difficult, am I?” Rose continues quietly reading her magazine. “Rose? I'm not, am I? Difficult? Rose, tell me I'm not difficult.”

“You're not difficult,” she parrots, not looking up from her reading and fighting a smile.

“That's what I've been saying! And now he...” A flustered flapping of arms in the direction of where the other Doctor is currently rummaging through the remaining brown suits in the TARDIS wardrobe. “He has to turn everything into some sort of Time Lord pissing match! Which,” he adds with a superior sniff, “I would win, being the only full-blooded Time Lord left in the universe.” He waits for some kind of acknowledgment of agreement from her, and she finally stands and crosses to him, wraps her arms around his neck. His eyes are bottomless and she sees how afraid he is of all this – run-ins with your past selves are one thing, and something you learn to deal with as a time traveler. But this additional him is...Him, and that's completely new and terrifying. Can he, literally, live with himself?

“It will take time,” she says, bringing her hand up to caress his face. His stubble is scratchy under her palm, and his eyes flutter shut at the contact.

He smiles. Soothed. “Time, I've got.”

****

Time, Rose feels, is something she finally has as well. No longer measured in lengths of how long since it feels like her life came to an end, but in how long since it began again. Not marked by words unspoken, and feelings never expressed, because what's worn plain as day on the face of her first Doctor is expressed, often at hilariously inappropriate moments and with a complete lack of self-censorship, by her second Doctor.

“We're all gonna die!” he shrieks when the TARDIS lurches violently, his huge grin betraying his absolute joy at the prospect of facing more of the danger the three of them crave.

“Oh. My. _God_. That's _beautiful_ ,” at the 17,000th Annual Solar Implosion of the Chanigcro Galaxy, watched through the open doors of the TARDIS.

“I adore you, Rose Tyler. So much.” Spoken softly into her ear while they're being led in chains toward a public execution, which goes delightfully awry when their jailers discover that their star prisoner seems to have escaped and is sonicing the restraints off...himself?

It is after that that the three of them have a decidedly Uncomfortable Conversation over coffee and cake about the nature of their relationship – the elephant in the room that can't be ignored anymore as, while she's gotten _reacquainted_ with her first Doctor several times already, Rose can no longer deny that she harbours those same feelings for this strange, other Doctor with his childish wonder and Donna-isms.

Their first time he has a bit of trouble unfastening her bra, and she realizes his hands are shaking. He curses under his breath. “What I wouldn't give for the sonic. He's been hoarding it.” She smiles against the skin of his neck.

“It has a setting for that?”

“Of course,” he answers, nuzzling along her jaw. “Setting 384 – unhooking very small hooks. No other use for it, really.” There is an audible elastic snap and the silken fabric falls free from her shoulders. “Ah,” he says, pleased with himself. And then moments later: _“Oh.”_

The Doctor finds her, some time later, huddled quietly in the library. He sits beside her, knowing what she's going to say before she says it. “I'm sorry.” There are tears in her voice.

“Rose, no.” He wraps one arm around her and pulls her closer. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“But I...him...”

“He's me and I'm him. Well, I'm better looking of course.” She snorts a little laugh, and he smiles. “It's not important. Because I know...that as much as I...” He struggles. “He does, too. And he can say it. Because you deserve to hear it, every day.”

She looks up at him with slightly puffy eyes. “You're really okay with all of this?” And to her surprise, he is smiling – not manically, but that special, sweet smile he saves just for her.

“Rose – you're _back_. I...we...couldn't be any happier.”

****

They maintain separate rooms to avoid any jealousies, and eventually settle into an odd sort of visitation schedule that Rose thinks she would find creepy or bizarre on anyone else, but for the three of them falls right into place. Both Doctors have already expressed their distaste for any alternative. “It's masturbation. With an audience,” the other Doctor points out, wrinkling his nose a bit.

“Says the man with The Hand,” the Doctor says, smirking cheekily. “You probably don't want to know where that hand has been...”

“Oi!” He covers his ears dramatically, while Rose stares, gobsmacked.

“You only had that hand for a couple of hours!” He shrugs.

“Welll, new body. Had to make sure everything...worked.”

“Not in mum's flat!” His blush is enough of an answer that she joins the other Doctor in covering her ears, and soon all three of them are giggling.

****

They run for their lives, and Rose realizes, a Doctor's hand in each of hers, that she is the luckiest, and most loved, girl in the universe.


End file.
